Kristine Juncker contributes a nuanced account of women's creative engagement with Afro-Caribbean religiosity in the twentieth century. By examining the religious arts practices of four female religious leaders with some connection to Cuba between 1899 and 1969, she argues that Espiritismo, La Regla de Ocha, and other Afro-Caribbean religions cannot be understood in isolation from one another; rather, religious leaders often participated in, reproduced, and artistically celebrated multiple faiths simultaneously. This ongoing dialogue, she claims, contributed to the expanding popularity of Afro-Atlantic arts across the globe.

The main purpose of the book is to reveal the centrality of women in Afro-Caribbean religious practices, against a historiography that focuses almost exclusively on male religious leadership. As evinced by the works of Stephan Palmié and others, the centrality of women in these movements is often silenced by the very structures designed to regulate the...